The accused told the court Monday that a combination of cocaine, alcohol, stress, power, money and a relentless push for success, led banker Robert Kissel to develop a nightly routine of aggressive sodomy, hair-pulling and humiliating sex games.

She alleged her husband hit her the first time in 1999 when she refused to induce labor for the delivery of their third child. He wanted the baby born earlier as he would otherwise be in South Korea for work.

The accused began her testimony by painting a picture of Kissel as violent and controlling - a stark contrast to the family man and model professional previously described by his former Merrill Lynch colleagues.

She said Kissel developed an insistence that she engage in sodomy after putting on weight during her first pregnancy. She came to believe she was no longer attractive to him.

An already difficult situation took a turn for the worse, she said, when the family moved to Hong Kong. ``The hours [of Kissel's stressful but successful job] took their toll,'' she said.

Sex became a routine of ``oral sex for him and anal sex for me,'' said the accused, adding the banker began to indulge himself in power games with her. ``He'd start this game, toying with me, and he would say things to me, so that we would do what he wanted.''

She would find herself trapped between his legs as he pulled her hair and tried to force her to perfom sex acts, she said. That was just the start.

``He would throw me on to the bed to finish. It would always be a struggle,'' she said.

He would force her to lie on her stomach, she said, so he could do as he pleased. ``[Once] he tried flipping me over. I didn't want it. He grabbed me by the hips, just twisting. I felt something pop,'' said Kissel, adding she later went to the hospital with a fractured rib.

``[During the act] he was just so angry. It was like I wasn't even there. It was just something he did. He never even had to look at my face.''

Afterwards, she said, ``That's it. Everybody goes to sleep. And it's over.'' The next morning, ``Everything's normal.'' When asked why she did not tell anybody, Kissel replied, ``You just don't. You just don't. It's humiliating.''

Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake, which left him unconscious at the foot of their bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

She told police and doctors at the time her husband assaulted her when she refused him sex. She denies the charges and is out on bail.

On Monday, the accused testified about her time in New York City juggling three jobs waiting on tables, to pay for food, rent and Robert Kissel's MBA studies.

The couple's early married life in New York was ``exciting,'' she said, but arguments were already developing because of her husband's use of cocaine. As a hard-working student, he relied upon cocaine, ``to get through the hours,'' she said. Her husband had a drug-dealing friend who would come round to their apartment and ``money would exchange'' across the dining table.

``I had tons of arguments about it and I was working three jobs to pay [for] tuition, not drugs,'' she said.

At the time, the victim was a social drinker, taking wine, beer, and vodka tonics, but ``eventually, he came to love single malt scotch. It became his drink,'' she said.

In 1997, Robert Kissel was delighted when he landed a job at Goldman Sachs.

``It was the biggest firm in the industry, everyone wanted to work with Goldman Sachs,'' the accused told the court. ``[It gave him a higher position] and a lot of money.''

But the new job, and preparations for the move to Hong Kong the following year, demonstrated the accumulated nightmare of stress, alcohol and cocaine, which the banker relied upon to stay awake as he worked both US and Hong Kong stock markets.

``It's literally 24 hours of having to be awake,'' said the accused.

On the flight to Hong Kong from New York, ``he passed out for 15, 20 minutes, probably from drugs, alcohol, altitude and jet-lag,'' she said. After that incident, instead of shying away from the stress, ``he thrived on it.

``It's what made him tick - the power of it all, succeeding.''

Asked why her husband switched from Goldman Sachs to Merrill Lynch in 2000, Kissel replied, ``Money.'' It was also a ``move to a more controlling position.'' By then, ``everything was based around money,'' said Kissel.

In Hong Kong, the drinking and cocaine use continued, she said, with the consumption determined by how long her husband worked at night.

Kissel will continue her testimony today before Justice Michael Lunn.